Tonight’s meeting varied somewhat from the planned schedule. A lot of trading was taking place before the meeting, not at the end. Seemed like a record attendance tonight. We ran low on chairs. It’s always good to get there early. Turns out there were 50 members in attendance. I believe that’s a new record for a regular Wednesday meeting.

Some people were more interested in “Show and Tell”. There were a lot of participants who wanted to share their finds, because of last weeks Stamp Show. It was a challenge to curb their enthusiasm with the regularly scheduled Opportunity and Voice sales (can we go back to calling them auctions?). There was abundant evidence there were some empty pockets. The bidding was somewhat lackluster.

Turning the lights off at that time of evening during Bob Schappelle’s “Perfins Primer” might have had a deleterious effect. It was a great presentation! I really enjoyed it, and learned things I didn’t know about perfins, including that in the U.S. they started in 1908. Which was fairly late relative to some European countries. I also learned there are 6,400 patterns known in the U.S. And there is a rating system from A to F, with A being most expensive and F selling for as little as 10c.

I suggest in the future we keep the lights on by the front door. I detected some Dozers around me. I swear I heard snoring. Believe me when I say, I was not one of them, honest. You know we’re a bunch of old men and when you turn the lights down low, we might nod off. But not me, I swear to you! You know who you are! But I deny any direct knowledge. No it was not me snoring!